Thirteen, Her Blue Box and the Whole of Time and Space
by EvelynThursday
Summary: A collection of short stories, scenes and one shots too short to have their own individual story. Mostly whump and hurt/comfort. Each chapter is stand alone and summaries for each are inside.
1. Sudden Stars

Tag for the ending of season 11 episode 1, 'The Woman who fell to Earth'. Inspired by Inktober/Jotober 2018 day 8 prompt 'star'.

* * *

The garage vanished, and with a rush of air past her ears, was replaced with stars. The cold was a shock to her skin as was the sudden lack of oxygen. Her lungs started burn under the pressure of the air she had held just before she had activate the teleport. She had expected to end up on a planet, possibly with a hostile atmosphere, hence the holding of breath, not here. She tightened her grip on her sonic screwdriver to make sure she didn't lose it (again) and looked around.

To her horror she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She fought the lack of gravity, twisting a little to see her friends floating there in space with her. They looked terrified. What had she done, dooming them to a quick but brutal death in the cold vacuum of space?

There was no planet in sight. What was she going to do now?


	2. Exhaustion

_Set at the start of the Doctor's regeneration sickness during S11E1 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth'. Inspired by the Inktober/Jotober day 7 prompt 'exhausted'._

* * *

"Seriously though, aliens?" Asked Graham, sounding like he still wasn't believing 100% of what had happened that night.

"Yep," replied the Doctor, feeling dizzy. She barely noticed Graham's next words

"Oh yeah, maybe I won't mention that bit," before he walked off into the darkness.

She was suddenly struck with a wave of exhaustion, knocking everything sideways. She bent over, trying to keep her balance before straightening up, drawing in a large breath.

"Suddenly," she admitted to her new friends, "I feel...really tired."

"That was a big fall you had, love." The Doctor felt Grace near her side and heard the concern in her voice. "Should get you checked out at A and E."

"No, no," she objected "I never go anywhere that's just initials." And hospitals, in her experience, were full of people who meddled and fussed and caused all sorts of problems. All she needed was somewhere quiet to rest for a bit. "Although…" Her nose started to itch, her time sense trying to tell her something, though the feeling was unclear.

She drew in a deep breath, sticking her finger in her nose to concentrate the scent of time in one nostril.

"Ah, can one of you catch me?" The nose plugging had worked, coalescing time into a something she could understand.

"You gonna fall over?" Asked Ryan, alarmed.

"In two minutes nineteen seconds. Wait," okay, so her sense of time was still a little fuzzy, "forget the two minutes, nineteen-." The thought slipped through her mind and no matter how hard she tried she could not gasp it. "Oh, this new nose is _so_ reliable."

Then everything turned into a fading riot of light and colour and she knew no more.

* * *

Grace was shocked as the strange woman suddenly collapsed into Ryan's arms. He struggled with her ungainly weight for a moment before managing to sit her on the floor, propped up against his chest as he knelt on the pavement.

Grace gave her a shake to see if she would wake up, but she didn't, just stayed there limp in Ryan's arms.

They looked like a right odd lot, a nan and her grandson sitting on the pavement outside their house holding the unconscious form of a scruffy looking alien woman wearing men's clothes several sizes too big for her.

"She's breathing steadily," said Grace, giving their new friend a look over, "which is good. And as she has been running about all evening she can't have any broken bones from that fall. She must be exhausted. Ryan, love, can you carry her inside? I'll open t' door."

With Grace's help Ryan manages to wrangle the limp body into his arms and carries her up the steps and through the front door. Her head lolls on his shoulder and he can feel her soft breathing on his neck. She doesn't make a sound, even when he accidentally lets her dangling hand hit a door frame on the way past.

"Put her on t' sofa so she can sleep," said Grace after shutting the front door, squeezing past them in the living room to rearrange the cushions to make it comfortable for their guest. "I'll keep an eye on her whilst you go check Twitter for anything alien."

Ryan carefully deposits the alien on the sofa, helping Grace to remove their guest's coat then leaves his nan to settle her, straightening limbs and propping her head up on two of the more comfy cushions, making sure she still breathing easily. She must be really deeply asleep as she didn't even twitch during her ministations.

Grace leaves her for a few moments, sitting at Ryan's side at the dining room table as he flicked through Twitter on his tablet. She looked at his search results - the American president, immigration, NASA, views on the new sci fi show on the TV, nothing local about aliens. She looked at her own phone, opening Whatsapp and reading the recent messages there. No mention of anything strange there either. She sent off a message to the group and put the phone back in her pocket.

She looked at the woman lying across her sofa. She looked different now she wasn't running around. Gone was the cheeky grin and the manic spark in her eyes. Now she was sleeping peacefully, breathing slowly and body still, blond hair fanned across the cushions. She didn't look alien.

Nothing to do now but wait for Graham and Yaz to reappear, Grace thought to herself, looking at the clock on the wall. Hopefully they will be more successful in their information gathering than she had been.

Her eyes drifted back to her guest, suddenly remembering the coolness of her skin as she helped Ryan carry her. She didn't know how different her biology was from human, it wasn't as if she had been taught about different species when she was learning to be a nurse. But if she was human she could get cold, especially in those ill fitting clothes after running outside all evening. Best fetch a blanket.


	3. Headache

_I can't believe I wrote this in one day! I had the idea in bed in the morning and the words just flooded out. Now if only the same would happen with the prompt fill I am writing at the moment._

* * *

"Doctor?" Called Graham, entering the console room. "Doctor, you in here?" He looked around, searching for the Time Lord around the edges of the room as she wasn't standing in her usual spot at the console. There was no sign of her.

Just as he was going to turn back into the depths of the Tardis he spotted two legs peeking out from behind the console. Two booted legs with blue stripy socks, a length of bare shin and bottom of cropped blue trousers. The Doctor!

He raced around the console. The Doctor was lying on the floor, flat on her back beside the custard cream dispenser with a hand over her eyes.

"Doctor?"

"Hmmmm?" She murmured, sounding a little out of it. She lifted her fingers to squint at him groggily before replacing them over her eyes again. "'Lo Graham."

He knelt at her side.

"Doctor, are you ok?"

"Headache. It's been building all day."

"Why didn't you go to your room and lie down there?" He asked. The hard floor of the console room couldn't be the most comfortable place to have a nap.

"I got dizzy. I thought it would be safer to stay here. It'll pass, don't worry."

"Are you still dizzy? Or can you make it to your room on your own?"

"I think I'd rather stay here, Graham, if it's all the same to you. I just need to sleep it off."

"I'm not leaving you on the floor, Doc. You'll feel better in your own bed and you are going to make it there whether I help you or not."

She sighed, removing her hand from over her eyes and lifted both her arms in the air. Graham stood and grasped her hands and levered her up. As soon as she was up he was instantly concerned that she wasn't going to stay that way. She was unsteady on her feet and she slumped forward into him, head heavy on his shoulder.

"Doctor?" He asked.

"Ow," she moaned. "Dizzy".

He rubbed her shoulders where he was steadying her. He frowned, suddenly realising that the Doctor's usually cool hands had been warm in his own as he lifted her. He held one again, just to check.

"You're warm."

"I'm a tad feverish, I think," she mumbled, face still buried in his shoulder. She seemed to be standing a little steadier but seemed to have no inclination to move.

"Where is your bedroom?" He asked quietly in her ear, wondering if headache was an understatement and she really had a migraine. She was certainly shielding her eyes like she had one.

"It'll be close," she said, floppily waving a hand towards the depths of the Tardis. She still didn't otherwise move.

Graham let her stay there for a few moments, before stepping back and letting the Doctor's head slip off his shoulder. He moved beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Come on Doc, the sooner we move the sooner you can get in bed."

She moved when he stepped forward, squinting at her feet as they walked.

"Do you need me to get you any pain killers? Paracetamol, aspirin…?" He asked.

"No. No aspirin. That'll kill me."

"What?! Is there anything else I should know about that might kill you?"

"Just don't give me anything without either me or the Tardis saying it is safe. And I don't need anything other than to sleep it off, but thank you Graham." She gave him a pain filled smile.

The corridor was quiet as they entered it, the console room rumbling fading into the background. And was it just him or were the lights dimmer than usual?

He looked at all the doors as they went past, searching for a different one, but they seemed to be the usual rooms - kitchen, library, wardrobe, tool cupboard. He still couldn't quite get to grips with the fact that rooms could move.

They turned a corner. He spotted a blue door that he had never seen before.

"Doctor? Is this it?"

She opened her eyes and tiredly grinned.

"Yes," and lurched off his shoulder towards the door, hands reaching for the brass handle.

She all but fell through the door, Graham close behind to make sure she didn't fall over. She made her way to the bed, shedding her coat on the way. Graham picked it up from its pile on the floor and placed it over the chair in the corner.

The Doctor slowly lowered herself face down onto the bed. It looked like she had just wanted to collapse down but was moving gingerly to not make her head ache further.

Graham took the opportunity to look around the Doctor's elusive room. The walls were dark and the ceiling was a slowly moving mass of stars and galaxies.

There was a desk to one side, littered with bits of electrical equipment and strange alien artefacts. There were also two photos, a black and white image of a young looking woman and the other a woman with masses of straw coloured curls smiling at the camera.

The bedspread was a dark blue, just a shade or two darker then the police box exterior of the time and space ship they were in. The Doctor had just spread herself across the middle of the bed on top of the covers and at right angles to where the pillows were placed.

"Are you going to remove your shoes?" Graham asked.

She grumbled back at him and didn't move.

He sighed and bent down to unlace and remove her boots. He tucked them out of the way under the bed and stood up.

"Is there anything else you need?"

She didn't answer. She looked relaxed there in her sprawl on the bed, eyes shut and limbs still. Graham thought it would be best to leave her to sleep.

* * *

Graham stuck his head round the Doctor's door a few hours later

She was still lying on top of the covers but she shifted a little so her feet were no longer hanging in the air. She had spread eagled herself so the fingers of one hand disappeared off the far edge. He could hear her snoring softly.

He was satisfied that she was sleeping deeply and comfortably so he quietly shut the door.

"Where's the Doctor?" Yaz asked as he turned from the door, heading to the kitchen to find the others.

"In her room," he pointed a thumb at the door behind him, "sleeping. Don't disturb her, she needs the rest."

"She ok?"

"She said she will be after a sleep. I found her lying on the console room floor with a bad headache."

"I hope she feels better soon. I was only going to ask her if she wanted to join our movie night. Do you want to come?"

"What are you watching?"

"We can't agree. I think we need you to referee."

"You two can never agree," he said as they walked down the corridor towards the cinema room. "What are the choices? Not horror this time I hope, that last one was too close to the truth to be comfortable."


	4. Twins!

**The Doctor finds this regeneration more similar to Kate Stewart than her previous.**

 _I had this thought a few days ago and after the New Year's special's revelation about UNIT I thought I'd write it down. I needed to write something happy (and silly). I think this might be my first true drabble - writing exactly 100 words is surprisingly hard!_

 _Sorry for not updating sooner, my current ficlet is over 4000 words long and I have two other WIPs (in this fandom, I have a few more in another fandom that I would really love to finish), including the episode 2 prompt I was given, which I haven't forgotten about! I'll get back to writing it once I've finished my main WIP._

 _Keep updated with my WIPs and see snippets on my Tumblr - search for EviesWritingJournal._

* * *

Kate Stewart stood surrounded by her troops as the Doctor bounded out of the Tardis.

"Kate, hello! What did you call me for? We were just..."

The Doctor's attention shifted to her hair, eyes widening in realisation. Kate resisted the temptation raise a hand to it.

The Doctor suddenly stepped forward, grabbing a lock of Kate's hair and pulled it towards a fist full of her own. Kate bent with the tug and their blonde hair mixed together. The Doctor beamed.

"Look, we match! We're twins!"

"Yes, Doctor," said Kate flatly."Can we get on with the matter at hand?"


	5. Her Daughter

**Team Tardis discover that the distress call they were following had already been answered. But by whom?**

 _After stumbling on someone's 13th Doctor fanart on Pinterest (juanmao1997 on Twitter) the plot bunny for this wandered around my head for a few days before I wrote it down. Go check out their art, even if you can't understand Chinese (and I can't) you will understand what most of the pieces are conveying. Also Cat!13 is absolutely adorable (cats!9-through-12 are also perfect, as is cat!Missy)._

* * *

"I am afraid you are too late," said the alien to the Doctor as Team Tardis looked around at the damaged buildings. "The distress call has already been answered and the situation has been resolved. But I thank you for coming to our aid."

"Oh," said the Doctor, looking almost disappointed that she couldn't wade into an exciting situation and take control.

"Back to the Tardis then," muttered Graham to Yaz. "I can finish my cup of tea."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Asked the Doctor, bouncing on her toes.

"I can ask our saviour what you can do to assist with the rebuilding efforts. I will take you to our headquarters. Come."

"You've lost your thunder with this," said Ryan to the Doctor as they walked through streets filled with aliens clearing rubble. "You're not the hero this time."

"I'm not a hero, Ryan. But it's nice to know that there are people out there who help other people not enslave them." She replied. "Or at least that's what I am hoping is happening. I've seen the rescue of a civilisation used as a cover for invasion too many times before to trust what is happening on the surface. Anyway, I'm excited to meet whoever answered the distress call first, it sounded like it was going to be a hard situation to sort."

* * *

They entered a low building through heavy metal doors. Inside was a warren of corridors that their guide navigated through with ease.

"Through here." The alien motioned towards a doorway they had stopped near, sunlight streaming through. "I must go back to my position but our saviour will appoint someone to you to show you where you are needed or back to your ship if required." It gave a quick hand gesture of farewell and disappeared back down the corridor.

"Well," said the Doctor. "Let's see who we will find through here." She stepped through the doorway, palming her sonic screwdriver as she went.

They walked into large room, with rows of control desks encircling out from the centre, each manned by an alien enraptured by their tasks; none of them looked up when they passed. Bright sunlight lit up the room from above, huge glass skylights covering most of the ceiling.

In the centre of the room, standing next to a large bank of screens, stood a human-looking woman with long blond hair tied down her back. She half turned towards them as they neared her, acknowledging their approach with a glance and a nod as she continued speaking to someone through a headset. Her hands moved as she spoke, fingers tapping at buttons and trailing across words on the monitors as she read them.

The Doctor froze mid-step, staring wide eyed at the blond figure, screwdriver slipping from her fingers to clatter on the metal floor.

"Jenny?" She asked, voice quiet and hopeful yet fearful of the answer.

The figure turned to the visitors, removing the headset and hanging it up on a corner of a screen. She looked at the Doctor critically.

"Hi, do I know you? I haven't been in this part of the galaxy long enough to know anybody yet." The Doctor suddenly looked nervous.

"I'm the Doctor."

"I'm sorry," the woman said, brows furrowing. "but I'm gonna have to ask you to prove it. I've met people pretending to be him before. Though this is the first time a woman has tried it."

The Doctor looked down at her hands as she spoke.

"You were born on Messaline out of my genetic material to help fight a war. As you didn't have a name Donna called you Jenny as I called you a generated anomaly. You died saving me as I was brokering peace between the humans and the Hath."

There were tears in both Jenny's and the Doctor's eyes as the Time Lord looked up, hopeful.

"Dad?" The woman asked.

The Doctor leapt forward and enveloped her daughter in a massive hug, Jenny wrapping her arms around the Doctor's waist, grinning from ear to ear.

Behind them the three forgotten humans just stared shell shocked at each other. Ryan mouthed 'Dad?' at the other two.

There were tears streaming down the Doctor's face as they parted, the Doctor stroking Jenny's cheek.

"Oh my girl." She said in an almost sob. "My beautiful girl."

"Hi Dad," smiled Jenny. "I hoped I would bump into you again someday."

"How are you here? You died in my arms."

"And then I woke up a few hours later. Turned I am more like you than we realised. I stole a shuttle and explored the universe." The Doctor barked a short laugh.

"Like father, like daughter." She stepped back and wiped her face with a hand, sniffing loudly. "You do not know how happy I am to see you alive. I always regretted how poorly I behaved towards you on Messaline. I only knew you for such a short time but I treated you so terribly. You made me remember the family I had lost so I paid no attention to the family I had gained. I'm sorry."

"It's ok, Dad. I understand. Or should I call you Mum now?"

"You can call me whatever you want. But," She added in a quiet voice, "I quite liked it when you called me Dad. And I still haven't got completely used to the whole female pronouns thing yet."

"Dad it is then, whatever face you have." The Doctor beamed.

"Oh Jenny. I have missed you so much." There was a few moments silence as both women drunk in the sight of the other. "Has the universe lived up to your expectations?"

"It's better than I could have imagined. I always hoped that I could find you so I could tell you about all the places I have been. I also tried to find everything about you. The last of the Time Lords who can change his face. Saviour of worlds. The adventures you have had."

"Don't tell me about them, some may not have happened to me yet. But I would love to hear where you have been."

There was a cough behind them, reminding them that they weren't the only two in the room. Graham stood sheepishly in front of the Yaz and Ryan, clearly having drawn the short straw.

"Aren't you going to introduce us Doctor?" He asked.

"Sorry," she replied excitedly. "Jenny, this is Graham, Ryan and Yaz." She pointed to each in turn. "Fam, this is Jenny. My daughter."


	6. Duty of Care

_The Doctor tries to do her best by her friends. Sometimes she doesn't succeed._

 _Written for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt #1: I have a duty of care. I don't think I'm very good at introspection but I had a go._

* * *

She had always felt responsible for the people she travelled with.

Sure, way back in time when she had been exploring the universe with her granddaughter, it had been a low priority, the freedom to discover new planets without the restrictions imposed by her people far outweighed the danger that was also out there. She hadn't gained the experience and the loss that she had now.

The young are always foolish in the eyes of the old.

Looking back she knew that she had not done well by her first few companions, though with some she could barely remember the exact reasons why. Memories from those times had faded, the colours in her mind eye reduced to shades of black and white. Poor Ian and Barbara, inadvertently snatched from their time and taken across the universe when all they wanted was to get back home. But they had made it, unlike others.

All throughout her history she had tried and failed. Let the people she loved die or left them behind all because she thought better. Rose, Donna, River, Clara, Bill, just to name the ones since the Time War, not to mention the ones from her younger years. Susan, Adric- the two that still hurt most in her hearts.

She was young back then, naive. Stupid.

She had, and she still has (sorry Yaz, Ryan and Graham), a habit of ripping people out of their lives and changing them, expecting them to fit back neatly in the hole they had left behind. Change always happened, whether for good or bad, whether they want to or not. She had tried to improve, do better by her friends, but not always succeeded. Even with her best efforts she still lost them, failing in her duty to look after them.

Things were a little rocky with her last body, pushing everybody away so the universe couldn't take them away. Rough, sharp edges of his personality that only a scant few managed to bare, fewer to smooth them down even slightly. But that didn't stop the hurt, only amplified it when Bill was killed. He had failed her. He had not fulfilled his duty to her.

That was not going to happen again. Not with these three precious humans.

"Doctor!" Yelled Yaz from somewhere down one of the Tardis's many corridors. "The popcorn's ready. Ryan's about to put the film on!"

"I'll be there in a minute!" She yelled back, smiling at the colourful nebula before her, the pinks and purples and greens a balm to her tortuous thoughts, and scrambled to her feet in the open doorway.

Care came both ways, she had to remember as she shut the Tardis doors. She was responsible for the welfare of her friends but she had to allow them to care for her too. That's what made life worth it, caring and being cared for in turn. Embrace it whilst you can, Doctor.


	7. The Doctor and the Tardis, forever

_Fill for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt #2: Old Friends. It's a rather late but I have been on a rather tiring holiday for a week (to Yorkshire, home to the Doctor herself and my ancestors) and finished my Hurt/Comfort Exchange fill._

* * *

"It's been far too long since I cleaned these proto-thermic regulators. Sorry, Old Girl, I've not been the best pilot to you recently."

The Tardis groaned and shot out a jet of hot air into the Doctor's face as she lay amongst the cables and pipes under the console, ruffling her hair.

"I know, but I'm doing it now. And I've fixed the broken temporal logic processor I bought on Saturn VII so I'll replace that once I've finished here." The Doctor swiped errant strands of hair out of her face with the back of one grimy hand. "It's amazing what you can get done when you get into the groove. We haven't had a rest stop this long for ages." The Tardis sparked at her.

"Yes, I know it's my fault. Wait, no, it was you that sent us towards that planet last week when I was aiming for that beach resort! I was planning to clean these out whilst the fam were out having fun! We never did get there in the end." A beep. "I think I'll take them there after I've picked them up. They deserve to have a nice break after our last adventure."

It had not gone well and the three humans had taken the deaths hard. They had asked to spend a few days at home to process things and the Doctor had let them, wishing to spend some time alone with her bestest and oldest friend to work through her own self blame at the losses. A little Tardis maintenance was just the thing to get her mind off it.

Her tongue stilled as she continued cleaning, humming a half remembered tune from her childhood. The tune brought back memories that hadn't been thought of in decades; playing amongst the straw in that old barn, running through crimson grass with her boyhood friend by her side.

"Who would have thought," she mulled to herself and the Tardis, "way back in my first body, that I would end up here? We've seen so much of the universe, more than I could even dreamed of when I was at the Academy. What would have happened if I had never stolen you? Or you stole me?" That brought back memories of another time, in her eleventh body with bowties and floppy hair and the married pair of humans that had travelled with him.

No, don't think about them, that hurts too much. Remember the lady with the torn dress, the wild hair and the gleam of the universe in her eyes.

"I wish we could talk to each other like we could when you got transferred into a human body. We had such a short time together like that. Instead you've got to listen to me nattering inanely about things. I know you do talk back in different ways, but it's just not the same."

A mournful moan and warm gust of air across her face, almost a caress.

"You've always been there for me. We've each changed over time but still we're together." The now shiny tubes were reconnected and the Doctor shifted to reach the birds nest of wires by her elbow. "Who knows how long we still have left together." She ran her fingers through the wires, carefully untangling them. "You're my oldest friend, Sexy. I don't know what I'd ever do without you."


	8. Blinded by Fashion

_Despite being friends with humans for most of her thousand(s) year life the Doctor still can't adhere to their fashion sense, especially for a formal occasion._

 _Fill for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt 'formal wear'. Only one day late this time! If anyone drew what the Doctor is wearing in this I would love you forever!_

* * *

"Doctor, what on earth are you wearing?"

Yaz almost tripped over her own feet in surprise when she entered the console room, Ryan and Graham behind her equally shocked at the state of their friend.

The Time Lord was dressed in a garish riot of coloured fabrics. Gone were her usual blue trousers and in their place were folds of shiny blue-green fabric that were so iridescent it made her friends' eyes water just looking at it. They couldn't even tell if she was wearing trousers or a skirt.

Her top half was festooned with thick ribbons of luminous yellow and orange, covering a barely visible silver base layer and snaking down her bare arms like an overdressed neon Christmas tree.

"What?" Asked the Doctor, looking down at herself to see if her clothing had suddenly changed without her noticing since she had dressed herself a few minutes prior. It hadn't. "This is the formal dress of the Thoros people. Of course I don't have enough arms to show it off to full effect but its close enough." She waved an arm in the air and the ribbons that dangled off it fluttered mesmerizingly.

"And why are you wearing it?"

"We've been invited to a party. I saved the High Prince a few years ago so he's invited me and as many friends as I wish to bring to his birthday party."

"Do we have to wear the same as you?"

"You can wear whatever is formal in your culture, everyone else will be wearing what is appropriate to them so don't worry about looking different."

"Thank goodness." exclaimed Graham. "I think you've got a better chance of pulling off that look than I do, Doc."

"Why don't you wear what your culture wears?" Asked Ryan.

The Doctor screwed up her face.

"I'm not wearing the dress of my culture. It looks stupid, all huge collars and not practical at all. Very silly."

Yaz grabbed the Doctor by one ribbon covered arm and pulled her in the direction of the wardrobe.

"Well we are not going to be seen with you wearing that. Come on, I'll find you something suitable for you. You fancy a suit or a dress?"

Their voices started a fade as they made their way deeper into the Tardis.

"I don't know," replied the Doctor. "What do think would look best on this body? I can't say I've worn a dress to a formal occasion before. Though there was that one time…."


	9. Cat With Many Lives

_Fill for Thirteen Fanzine's prompt "How are you not dead?" This is in fact the first of two fills! The other will be posted tonight/tomorrow, depending on your time zone._

* * *

"How are you not dead?"

Yaz beamed at the Doctor, eyes wide as she tentatively touched at her arm, almost not quite believing that she was stood before the three of them.

The Doctor's coat was singed, lightly smoking at one elbow. Her trousers were torn at one knee and covered in ash. There was blood in her bedraggled hair and soot smudged across her face.

"We saw you go flying after that explosion," continued Yaz. "We thought you were dead, we barely made it out of there alive ourselves!"

"I'm a cat with nine lives, me. Or rather thirteen lives. No, fourteen so far, and anything up to about twenty, who knows just how many new lives the Time Lord council gave me, even a whole cycle of regenerations. I just don't know and that's exciting!" She looked at the stunned faces of her friends. "What?"

"I have no idea if you are being serious, Doc," said Graham.

"I'm with Grandad."

The Doctor slung her arms around Ryan and Graham's shoulders.

"You two should know by now that I'm always serious." She patted their backs then tucked her hands in her trouser pockets. "I'm starving. Let's go find some grub."

"Can't argue with you on that, Doc," agreed Graham.


	10. I Thought You Were Dead!

_Second fill for the Thirteen Fanzine "How are you not dead?" Whoo!_

 _IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST FILL GO BACK A CHAPTER AS I POSTED BOTH FILLS TODAY!_

* * *

Yaz held the Doctor's cold hand as the Time Lord slept, watching the screen showing her reassuring dual heartbeats.

They were in a hospital room, its single bed next to the big window overlooking a park covered in sunflower yellow grass and blue-green leafed trees. There weren't many people enjoying it, most people would still be recovering from the devastation that had ended less than 24 hours ago.

Graham and Ryan had retreated back to the Tardis to sleep, exhausted after the day's events. Yaz was too worried to sleep, she had napped for a few minutes here and there once the Doctor had been treated but she couldn't sleep until she knew that the Doctor would be alright.

When the Doctor woke up.

Yaz still couldn't shake herself of the memory of when the Doctor was hurt. She knew that she couldn't have done anything differently but she still felt like she should have done more.

She been helpless when the generator had overloaded, exploding and throwing the Doctor, who had been trying frantically to stop it, across the room. She had watched from behind reinforced glass from the control room as the Doctor flew through the air, almost in slow-mo like in movies when the hero jumps into danger to save everybody. But she was not the hero this time and couldn't even save herself.

The last thing Yaz has seen before Graham and Ryan had dragged her away was of the Doctor's unmoving body amongst the rubble as burning debris fell around her. She had thought her dead. Everyone who was there had thought her dead. No one could have survived the initial explosion and subsequent chain reaction that had destroyed the generator complex.

So it was to everyone's surprise and relief that a day later she had been pulled out of the rubble alive. Unconscious, badly injured and barely clinging to life but still stubbornly alive.

The medics had treated her for hours once she had been rushed to the hospital, her three friends pacing the corridors and putting on a brave face whilst talking to people that also had been injured in the events of the last few days.

When the medics had finally come to talk to them their nerves were frayed. They had been told the list of the Doctor's injuries, not pleasant to hear. Broken ribs, a broken arm, concussion, a punctured lung, lots of other internal injuries, so many cuts that she had lost a lot of blood. But she was still alive.

All her injuries had been healed enough to make her comfortable, thanks to their technology, but had stopped before they healed fully. It was best, the medics said, to give the Doctor's body time to recover on its own as the shock of being so badly hurt then artificially healed might be too much.

They also said that thanks to the scan they had taken of Yaz, whose internal anatomy was thankfully was close enough (binary vascular system notwithstanding) for them to use it as a road map, they had healed her unfamiliar anatomy with little difficulty. Without it may have resulted in a different story.

They had been led through the hospital to the room where Yaz now sat, the Doctor pale and still unconscious under the white and silver sheets.

It was a shock to see her so still and lifeless, they so used to seeing her animated and always moving, especially around the console of her beloved Tardis. But here she was, one arm covered in the mottled green-brown of half healed bruises, burns shiny and smooth across a cheek and snaking down a collarbone and disappearing underneath her gown but not the angry red of a fresh injury. Her skin was littered in small cuts and bruises, standing starkly against her pale skin. She stayed unconscious, breathing softly.

Ryan and Graham had stayed for a few hours, chatting quietly before Graham had fallen asleep in his surprisingly comfy chair. Ryan had chosen to take his grandad back to the Tardis and to have a nap for a few hours. He would be back to relieve Yaz from her vigil so the Doctor would not be left alone.

The fingers in the hand she had held since she had sat at the Doctor's bedside suddenly twitched. Yaz sat up straight in her chair, heart in her throat and hardly daring to breath. The Doctor groaned, hand and body tensing as her eyes fluttered open. She look up at the ceiling, eyebrows creasing before turning her head to the figure beside her.

"Yaz?" she croaked.

"Yes, Doctor," Yaz replied, "you're safe and you're alright. We're all alright."

The Doctor seemed to relax before tensing again, slipping her hand out of Yaz's and weakly patted at herself through the sheets.

"Am I still me?"

Yaz nodded.

"You're still the amazing woman I met in Sheffield."

The Doctor sighed, letting her hands flop back onto the bed.

"Good. I like this body. I needed the change, I think."

Silence settled over the room, the Doctor starting to doze off again.

"How are you not dead?" Yaz suddenly said, desperate to air the thoughts that had constantly tumbled round her tumultuous mind since she had been told of the Doctor's discovery many hours before. The woman in question blinked herself awake again and waited for Yaz to express her feelings before speaking. "I saw you get thrown by the explosion. Surely no one could have survived that. And then you had a building fall on you."

Yaz felt a tear fall down her cheek and she roughly swiped it away. But it was not enough, all the emotion she had bottled up exploded and a sob rose from her throat. "I thought you were dead. We all did. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't found you alive."

The sobs snatched the rest of her words away and tears dripped off her chin.

"Oh, Yaz."

The Doctor reached out with a shaking hand and grabbed Yaz's jacket and weakly pulled her towards her. Yaz let herself be pulled into awkward hug, pressing her face into the Doctor's shoulder in an attempt to stop the tears. She could feel the Doctor's hand in her hair.

It felt like ages passed until the tears stopped and Yaz could breathe normally again.

"You can let go of me now, Doctor." The hand on her head didn't move.

Yaz lifted her head carefully to look at the Doctor. Her eyes were shut and she was breathing deeply and softly.

Yaz gently removed the Doctor's hand from her hair and placed it on her stomach. The other hand that was loosely around Yaz's waist was placed the same.

She smiled, relief finally releasing that knot of anxiety in her stomach.

"Sleep well, Doctor." She said.


	11. A View Over Golden Corn

_Written for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt 'painting'._

* * *

Yaz paused, glass of water in hand in the Tardis' darkened corridor. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a bright glow, different from the warm orange of the Tardis' usual ambiance, especially at this time of night. It seemed to be coming from the console room, assuming that the rooms hadn't moved since she had gone to bed. At least the kitchen hadn't moved.

Under her bare feet the usual rumble of Tardis flight was absent. Curious, Yaz padded towards the light.

The console room was bathed in warm, golden light, the doors of the Tardis thrown wide. The Doctor was standing at the doorway, leaning against the frame, silhouetted against the bright sunshine pouring through the door. Her hair glowed. Beautiful.

"Doctor?" Yaz asked as she got close. The Doctor turned in surprise.

"Yaz! Why are you up?" Yaz wiggled the glass in her direction.

"Headache. I don't think I drank enough yesterday."

"There are painkillers in the medbay if you need them."

"I'll get them if it doesn't get any better in a bit."

The Doctor nodded then returned to watching the scene before her. Yaz stepped forward to get a better view of what the Doctor was looking at. The Tardis had landed on a small rise, overlooking a corn field, gold stalks wafting in the wind in the early evening light. There were terracotta roofs peeking up from behind the trees at the other side of the field. It was warm in the sunshine, so different from the unrelenting heat from the planet they were exploring yesterday and the artificial warmth of the Tardis. Yaz stood there, basking in the light as she enjoyed the view.

Suddenly she noticed movement at the other end of the field, hidden in the shade under the trees. It was a ginger haired man peering around a large easel, paintbrush in hand. Looking at the Doctor she realised that it was him that she was looking at. Yaz pointed to him when he disappeared behind his painting again.

"Can't he see us?"

"Na," the Doctor replied, not looking away from the man who held her attention. "Perception filter. He can't see us so we don't have to worry about ending up in his painting."

"Why are you watching him?"

"I met him once. A long time ago."

"Well, why don't you go and say hello?"

"He wouldn't recognise me. "

"Who is he? If you don't mind me asking."

"Vincent. Van Gogh."

"What!? The famous painter?"

The Doctor smiled wistfully.

"Yeah."

All Yaz's question died on her tongue as she watched the Doctor. Emotions flickered across her face, both happy and sad. She didn't seem to be watching the painter anymore, though her eyes were still fixed on him. She let silence fall and turned to admire the scenery once more.

They stood there together in the Tardis doorway until the pink sky faded and the painter packed up and left.


	12. A Storm Hath No Fury Like The Doctor

_The Oncoming Storm rears her head when the Master steps into her life again._

 _This is basically what I want to happen the next time the Doctor meets the Master. As much as I love this incarnation of him I want to punch him in the face for what he did to Gallifrey._

* * *

The day had started as unremarkably as any other as Graham, Ryan, Yaz and the Doctor explored a new planet. It was dry and dusty like the African savannah, sunny but not unbearably hot and a gentle wind blew through the tall trees that dotted the landscape. Taking bites out of these trees and striding across the sparse grassland were creatures that looked like giraffes but had antlers and tiger stripes.

"They originate from your Earth giraffes," the Doctor said, hands waving in the air as she talked. "They've been genetically altered by the rich over the centuries for their amusement. Irresponsible manipulation at its finest! But the species has now been given protection and they now all live on this sanctuary." Ryan bumped his shoulder into Yaz's and rolled his eyes but said nothing. She grinned back, not completely enamoured with the wildlife that towered over them but kept quiet to not dampen the Doctor's joyous mood. It had been lacking a bit lately, not that she would tell them why. "In fact the whole planet is a sanctuary for all manner of creatures victims of unethical genetic alteration. Take for instance the Fother's peng…"

The Doctor trailed off, halting in her tracks, limbs rigid.

"Wha..." exclaimed Graham, who had been watching a nearby bird and had walked into the Doctor's back. He looked at the tree that held the Doctor's attention. "Doc?"

A figure stepped out from behind the tree. A familiar, hated figure.

The Doctor sucked in air between her bared teeth.

" _You._ "

"Hello, Doctor" said the Master with a Cheshire cat grin. "Visited home yet?"

The Doctor's face hardened to stone and went pale. Her body seemed to vibrate with tension.

Suddenly she lunged at him, fist raised and punched him in the face. He fell, unresisting, and she followed him down.

It was as if something had snapped inside the Doctor - gone were all traces of the happy-go-lucky woman everyone had got to know and she had been replaced with a stranger. Not even against Tim Shaw had she been like this.

The Doctor managed to land a second and a third punch before her friends had shaken off their shock and pulled her off the Master. She fought them, snarling and shouting incoherently and ignored their pleas to calm down. They didn't know what else to do, this show of unrelenting violence was unexpected from a self-confessed pacifist!

The Master laughed as he picked himself off the ground as the Doctor continued to struggle against her friends. He wiped his bleeding mouth with a hand, grinned at the red on his fingers then licked them clean. Yaz and Ryan shivered in disgust. Graham ignored them all, attention focused on the shaking Time Lord in his arms. There were tears running down her face and her fists, now tainted with red across the knuckles, were still clenched in tight balls. He turned to the Master.

"You tried to kill us. Tell me one good reason why we shouldn't let her go to give you the thumping you deserve."

"Cause if you do she won't get any answers. You still don't know what they did to us, do you Doctor?"

The Doctor snarled at him. The Master grin got wider.

"It's tearing you up from the inside, isn't it? The sheer pain of not knowing. If I knew that this would cause you this much anguish I would have done something like this centuries ago, not chased after your pathetic ape friends." He laughed. "But why? Why has the destruction of where you have not willingly travelled to for centuries caused you so much pain? You hated it, even when we were children."

"After the Time War I thought they were dead for decades." The Doctor's voice was thick and rough. "Centuries! Do you know how I felt, alone in the universe? I thought I was the one that had killed them. That guilt weighed on me for regenerations. But then they were alive and safe, in the bubble universe I created. As much as I hated it I had a home again.

"But now you have taken that away again. And now there is the guilt that I wasn't there to stop you. I have saved galaxies but I can't save my own home planet. You destroyed everything, killed everyone, even the children." She broke off into a sob.

The Master looked at her sadly.

"That's your downfall, Doctor. You shouldn't have a conscience. Especially not towards _them_."

He reached out and tenderly stroked her cheek as she flinched away then jerked towards him, teeth bared, barely held back. He laughed.

"Goodbye, Doctor." A flick of the wrist and a flash of light and he was gone.

The Doctor lunged forwards after him and her friends let her go. She stumbled for a few steps then fell to her knees, kicking up dust in her wake. She hunched over, arms across her chest, hair brushing the ground.

Silence fell.

"Doctor?" Yaz was the first to find her voice. "Are you ok?"

"Do you think she looks ok?" Murmured Ryan

"Well what else am I supposed to say?" Hissed Yaz back. "I'm sorry your friend committed genocide?!"

"Children," admonished Graham. "That's not helping." He stepped forwards towards the huddled figure on the ground. "Doc?" She didn't reply. "Doctor?" He went to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She flinched at his touch, shrugging off his hand when he tried again. Defeated he stepped back, shrugging at Ryan and Yaz. They shrugged back, hearts breaking at the Doctor's anguish but not knowing what to do to comfort her. How could you comfort someone who had lost their entire planet?

Beneath the Doctor's bowed head, hidden behind her hair, a few tears dropped off her face and intermingled with the few drops of Time Lord blood that spotted the ground.

Silence reigned, only broken by baboon-like calls in the distance.

Suddenly the Doctor drew in a deep breath and swiped at her face with the back of her hand, using the other to stand up. She didn't look in her friends' direction as she passed them, face hidden behind a curtain of hair.

"Back to the Tardis." Her voice was hoarse. They followed wordlessly, eyes barely straying from her back as they traipsed back through the savannah.

She still didn't utter a word once they were back in her box. She just stood at the controls and calmly piloted them off the planet, movements efficient and flat.

She still didn't look at her friends once the rumble of flight smoothed under their feet.

"Doctor," started Yaz. "How…"

"I need some time alone."

The Doctor stomped off into the depths of the Tardis. Yaz stepped to follow her but was stopped by Graham's hand on her arm.

"Leave her, love. She needs time to grieve. I'll take her a cup of tea in a bit, it's the least I can do after she helped me with losing Grace."

Yaz nodded sadly.

"Do you think she'll be alright?"

"She's the Doc. I don't think her well of optimism will ever run dry. She just needs time to process everything but she'll be back to her old self in a while."

"I wish we could do more."

"What can we do? She'll come to us when she needs us. And if she doesn't we'll drag her out and make sure she knows that she is not alone."

Yaz nodded again, unconvinced but satisfied for now. Ryan nodded his head in the direction of the corridor.

"Fancy thrashing me at Mario Kart?" That elicited a small smile.

"Sure. But I'm not going to be able to best ya for long, you get quicker with every lap!" They retreated down the corridor and Graham listened as their gentle banter faded in the distance. He found himself the last one in the console room.

He took one last look at where Ryan and Yaz, and before them the Doctor, had disappeared and murmured one last comment to himself that would not stay unsaid.

"I hope she'll be ok."


	13. Cold Tea and a Confession

_From the prompt- the doctor and Graham have been a couple for a while now however as Graham gets older he worries that he won't be there for the doctor for as long as she wants him to be._

 _Written before seeing any of tonight's episode which may contain themes that I have mentioned here. I don't know as I've tried to stay away from spoilers, we shall see if I'm right and have pre-empted anything._

 _This is my first time writing Graham/Doctor 'romance' I've only written platonic friendship/bromance with them before. Is it any good?_

* * *

Graham felt like he would never lose the wonder of sitting in the open Tardis doorway looking out across the empty expanse of space. The view was nothing like from earth; instead of orange tinted grey peppered with pinpricks there was a riot of light of different colours. From the reds and oranges of stars to blue and purple swirls of nebulae. Fireworks frozen at their best.

He sat cross-legged on the floor as he drank from his mug of tea, careful not to stick a limb out of the doorway- he also couldn't shake the fear of falling out and getting lost in space even with the Doctor's repeated reassurances that the Tardis was shielded and wouldn't let that happen.

Speaking of the Doctor, it was her footsteps that he could hear as they crossed the console room, the sound of her boots characteristically different from the trainers and shoes that Ryan and Yaz preferred. And their attention was taken by a film that they had been talking about all day so he knew that they would not emerge from the cinema room for at least an hour. He had been invited to join them but declined, the film just wasn't his thing.

The Doctor collapsed at his side in a flurry of coats until she finally stilled with her legs swinging out of the Tardis doors. Graham looked at her as she admired the view, heart clenching as the stars reflected in her wide eyes.

"It's beautiful, ain't it?" She looked at him with a grin and he rustled up a smile back. She turned back to stare at the stars.

Silence settled.

Graham dropped one of his hands into the space between them. The Doctor didn't look at him but her hand crept towards his and held it. It was odd, Graham thought, that during their adventures she would grab anyone's hand, even complete strangers, but in quiet times like this he had learned that it was best to offer her a hand to take if she wanted. It was like gaining the trust of a scared animal.

He concentrated on the feeling of her cool hand in his, as he watched a swirling nebula, and wondered how many more times he would experience it.

"Graham," asked the Doctor, sounding nonchalant but watching him from the corner of her eye. "Are you ok?" He shrugged.

"Fine." She turned to him.

"You sure there's nothing on your mind. You've been awfully quiet."

Graham looked down at his cup of tea. It was nearly empty. Would it be better to use it as an excuse to escape the conversation that he didn't want to have than have it, though he knew that it would lighten the burden that had been hanging over him for days?

The Doctor seemed to sense his internal conflict and squeezed his hand.

"It's just…" He sighed, trying to articulate the indefinable feeling. "I'm not getting any younger."

The Doctor didn't say anything, just squeezed his hand again.

"As much as I love exploring the universe with you I'm not going to be able to keep up with you for much longer. I worry how…" he breaks off and gives a little, self-deprecating laugh. "This sounds so arrogant of me, but I worry how you will cope without me."

"Graham," the Doctor breathed.

"Hear me out." He smiled sadly at the stars. "One of these days I'm not going to be fast enough and I'll be left behind. I had been thinking about going back to Earth and staying there but I don't think I can leave this life behind. I'm not sure I can go back to the life I had before you, not without Grace and not without you. And I wouldn't let you tether yourself to me for the rest of my days if I did. You've got the rest of the universe to show Ryan and Yaz." He paused to take a sip of cooling tea. "I know you don't tell me everything about your past but you don't tell Ryan and Yaz anything. I don't know why, they aren't going to look at you any differently. But I wish you would tell them something, you shouldn't bottle things up."

"They won't understand," said the Doctor after a few moments of quiet. "They just haven't lived long enough. Not that you've lived as long as I have but talking to you is just…" Her free hand waved through the air. "You've loved and lost and loved again like I have. Lived past the average for your species. You understand in some small way."

"But what will happen to you when I'm not here anymore? You'll have lost again. When you finally got us back to earth the first time after those fourteen or so attempts, just before Yaz invited you to her place and that mess with the spiders, you looked so sad. I don't want you feeling like that again. I can't bear the thought of you being alone."

The Doctor shifted across so their shoulders pressed against each other and she drew their entwined hands onto her lap. She stared at their hands before speaking.

"I've loved and lost far more than you know. I know what I've got myself into. I'll survive, I've always survived." She looked away but Graham caught a glimpse of wetness in her eyes. "It's the only thing I'm good at," she added, words barely audible.

"Well," said Graham, "I don't plan on dying quite yet." The Doctor gave a quick laugh.

"I should hope not. There's so much wonder out there I still haven't shown you."

She leant over and pecked a kiss to his cheek. He had never been good with physical displays of affection, even with Grace. He had tried to be more physical with her, wanted to be more physical, but it just wasn't his thing. His relationship with the Doctor was different, no less intense but calmer, more subtle. He didn't feel the need to show physical affection, especially not in front of his grandson and Yaz, who had come to feel like a granddaughter. The Doctor respected his boundaries in their relationship as he did hers.

A light came into the Doctor's eyes.

"Tell you what, there's one place I've been meaning to take you for a while. I'll take you there right now." She hopped up, dragging Graham up by the hand. Cold tea sloshed over his hand as she reached around him to close the Tardis doors.

"Whoa, slow down Doc!" He was happy to see her happy again but this sudden mood change was a little hard to get his head around, especially given their conversation topic.

She bounced over to the controls and beamed at him over the console.

"Wadda ya say, Graham?" Her hands danced over switches and dials then paused on the big lever. "Live in the moment?"

He thought over their last conversation and nodded.

She slammed the lever down.


	14. Regression

_Prompt fill: The Doctor turns into a child and can't remember the fam, thinking she's still a student of the Academy on Gallifrey and asks for her parents, while the fam wait for the effects to wear off._

 _I've sort of filled the prompt? I've not really had experience interacting with children so I had to adapt it a bit. I meant to get this posted before today's season finale (woah: bombshell!) but didn't manage it (thanks mental health)._

* * *

"Doctor!" Called Ryan as he cautiously walked down the empty corridor, ignoring his reflections that flanked him at either side. Other than the footsteps of Graham and Yaz, along with his own as they walked on the metallic floor behind him, there was no sound.

"Doc?" Graham got no reply to his yell. "You think she's even down here?"

"They said she was down here," said Yaz. "We've just got to keep going until we find the right room."

They had gotten separated earlier in the day after the Doctor had requested use of some equipment that their hosts, the Estradi, had available. She had been unwilling to tell them what and why she needed it, just told them to find her in exactly 3 hours. That time was now up.

They peered into another room, expecting it to be as lifeless as the other rooms they had inspected. It would seem this wing of the facility was rarely used, especially during the current crisis. But it wasn't empty.

The Doctor stood with her back to them, head bowed, as she ran fingers across the buttons and leavers of a control console, but didn't seem to be actively using them. She didn't show any indication she was aware of their presence.

"Doctor?" Ryan asked.

The Doctor jumped and turned to them, fear on her face.

"I wasn't touching anything, I swear!" Her breath hitched as she stared wide-eyed at the three humans. Her arms pressed protectively against her chest.

"Doctor," Yaz asked, "are you alright?"

The Doctor's brow wrinkled.

"Who's Doctor?"

Yaz paused, shocked.

"You're the Doctor."

The Doctor shook her head, hair flying.

"No. My name is Theta."

The humans stood stunned, uncertain what to do now. Was the Doctor possessed? Replaced by something? But the person standing in front of them didn't seem malevolent, just confused and perhaps a little scared. Somehow she sounded young. Innocent.

Yaz tried to smile and hoped it looked genuine, hiding the butterflies in her stomach.

"How did you get here, Theta?"

The Doctor, Theta, shuffled her feet, hands wringing as her gaze flickered across the three of them.

"I don't know." She said eventually. "I just woke up over there." She pointed at what looked like a dentist's chair surrounded by machines and equipment. Tears sprung up in her eyes and her breathing speed up. "I don't know where I am and I'm not me anymore."

Yaz's heart broke at the sight of her friend in tears.

"Hey, you're ok. You're safe, we won't hurt you. Why don't you tell me about yourself and anything you remember before you woke up here and we'll work out how to fix what is wrong?"

Theta shook her head, getting more distraught.

"I don't know who you are. I'm not supposed to talk to anyone I don't know. I don't know what's going on."

"Yaz," hissed Graham. "What is exactly going on? What's wrong with the Doc?"

She looked over her shoulder at him and shrugged. Her attention then switched back to the Doctor.

"What about after you woke up here? Surely you can tell me that, hey?" The Doctor nodded. "You said you woke up on that bed. Was there anybody with you? Has anything changed since then? Any lights on any of the equipment that have turned off or on that you remember?"

"No," Theta whined. "Nothing." Her body seemed to collapse on itself and she fell back onto the console behind her, hands covering her face. Quiet sobs wracked her frame.

"You're really scared, aren't you love. Would you mind if I gave you a hug?"

When Theta didn't respond Yaz cautiously stepped forward and slid an arm around her shoulder, ready to pull away at the first sign of negative reaction. Theta didn't move at first but then suddenly latched onto Yaz, fisting her hand in her shirt and pulling her closer. Yaz just held onto her and stroked her hair as the Time Lord, or whoever was inhabiting her body, sobbed into her shoulder.

Graham and Ryan, unable to do anything than idly stand by, started to investigate the rest of the room.

There was the chair that Theta had pointed at in the middle of the room, the bank of controls of which the Doctor, or Theta or whoever it was, leant against one end that ran across most of one side of the room and a large screen above it that filled the rest of the wall. The rest of the room was empty. It had no windows and only the single door they had entered through.

Ryan poked at some of the wires that covered the 'dentists' chair. They were similar to medical leads with small sticky pads at one end but they were tangled and scattered, as if someone had taken them off in a hurry. They were connected to the equipment that surrounded the chair at either side. Graham raised his eyebrows at Ryan over said equipment, thoroughly lost and unable to understand any of the displays and lights that peppered the machines.

It seemed to take a while but Theta eventually sobbed herself out. Yaz rubbed her back as she withdrew from the embrace and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

As Theta composed herself again Yaz stepped back to give her some space and looked over to see the boys crossing the room back to her.

"I don't understand any of that stuff," said Graham

"If only we had the Doctor, she'd understand everything," Ryan snorted. "There's irony for ya."

"Emm," interrupted Theta, sniffing heavily. "There is one thing." She stuck a hand in her pocket and withdrew something. "When I woke up I had this in my hand."

She held out the psychic paper, its surface covered in the same swirls and circles that were dotted through the Tardis.

Yaz reached for it but Theta pulled it away. She held the psychic paper against her chest and looked at them suspiciously.

"I need to know your names."

"Did we not say?" questioned Graham, more amiable towards Theta now he didn't consider her to be a threat. Surely someone that broke down into floods of tears couldn't mean anyone harm? She truly seemed scared. "Sorry, that's very bad manners. I'm Graham."

"An' I'm Ryan."

"Yaz."

Theta shoulders sunk as her eyes were glued to the psychic paper. She nodded to herself, seemingly coming to a decision. She looked up at them.

"It says I should trust you. And only you." She waved the paper in their direction. "Did you write this?"

"No," replied Yaz, "but I know who did. She's a friend of ours and I would trust her with my life so I know you can too."

Theta nodded to herself again.

"It says I should show you this."

She crossed to the middle of the bank of controls and after examining the psychic paper she pressed a few buttons.

The big screen flickered on. The Doctor's face appeared.

"Fam!" she exclaimed. "Sorry for running off on you earlier I had something important to do. I promised you answers and now is the time to give them."

Out of the corner of his eye Ryan saw Theta suddenly start and pull her hair in front of her eyes, then running a finger down her nose, examining the picture on the screen with the bits of body she could see and feel.

"That's this body," he heard her murmur.

"I know how to help the Estradi," continued the Doctor. "The only problem is that I can't actually remember it, but I know I learnt it as a child. That's the problem with being several thousand years old, the things I learnt in the Academy have been long forgotten.

"The Estradi have the technology to help me remember but there are side effects. I can't find it in any other way, it's not in the Tardis databanks and the information was never passed outside my home planet. Going home is… well, it's not an option. The only place it is is in my head. And I. Just. Can't. Remember." She looked off to the side and smacked the side of her head with a fist. "Stupid brains. Why can't I just remember?" She seemed to suddenly remember that she was on camera and refocused on the screen.

"And before you ask the Tardis telepathic circuits are no help, it's the wrong type of information. I won't go into detail why but it's like putting petrol in a diesel car. It just won't work. Unfortunately for me.

"I'll probably regress, that's the main side effect. Actually if you are seeing this I guess I have. Physically I'll still be me but mentally I'll be the age I was when I learnt what I'm looking for. A child. Please be gentle with me, I'll be young and I'll be scared.

"I've reconfigured the Tardis translation circuit so hopefully you'll understand me. If you can't then the modification has failed, which wouldn't be surprising as the circuits weren't meant to work in that direction. Try your best." Her face suddenly went serious.

"There is one important thing - don't ask me about myself. I know I haven't been forthcoming about my past and I trust you not to pry. I have my reasons not to share. In that vein don't let me talk about myself. I shouldn't as I was taught not to share information with outsiders but I thought I'd say just in case."

She paused for a second to retrieve something from inside her coat.

"In my pocket there should be this." She held up a small elongated cube, about the size and shape of a USB memory stick, black with a stripe of blue light down one side. "This is a data recorder. Whatever you do do not let me lose it or what I am about to do will be pointless." The recorder was tucked back in her pocket again. She sighed, eyes boring straight through the screen.

"This'll wear off, I promise. I don't know how long it'll take but it will. Please just get me into the Tardis and keep me safe. Don't be scared, I'll be back to normal soon."

She swallowed heavily and gave a little nod.

"See you guys on the other side."

She gave a grin, slightly nervous around the edges and the screen turned blank.

There was silence that followed the Doctor's message, each person present taking the time to gather their thoughts.

Both Graham and Ryan were internally panicking, neither had experience with children and didn't know what to say to their friend-turned-child even if she was still in her adult body. And the Doctor had said that she was the socially awkward one!  
On the other hand Yaz's nerves had settled as she could stop worrying about her friend. She just had to believe that the Doctor and her usual odd personality would return to them in time. Meanwhile the three of them had a child to look after. The Doctor had confirmed what Yaz had suspected - behind the Doctor's adult face was a child - her as a child.

Theta was the first to move, digging in her pocket with one hand. Yaz was next to shake off the stillness that had settled, quickly followed by Ryan then Graham as they remembered that they weren't the only ones in the room. They turned to Theta to gauge her reaction to the Doctor's revelations.

Theta was staring at something lying in the palm of her hand. It was small, black and rectangular with a blue stripe of light, just like what the Doctor had shown them on the video.

"It _was_ in my pocket," she said quietly, almost in wonder. She suddenly looked up, realising she had an audience, fingers clamping over the data recorder. "I'll keep it safe. Promise." Her voice was still quiet, husky with a little waiver. Yaz thought she might cry again but she straightened herself up and stuck out her chin.

"So I'm in her? Swapped bodies?" She tentatively asked.

"Erm, yeah," nodded Yaz, unsure what else to say.

"Does that mean you can fix me?"

"Sure. We've just got to wait and it'll sort itself out on it's own." Because you could hardly tell a child that they weren't going to exist any more at any moment in the (hopefully) near future. If Theta was still under the illusion that she had swapped bodies with the Doctor Yaz was not going to shatter it. She turned and gave hard stares at the others to ensure they didn't contradict her.

Theta seemed convinced and pocketed the recorder. She paused, one hand frozen halfway out of her pocket.

"I still don't really know who you are. What species are you?"

"Human," said Yaz

"From Earth," pointed out Graham, remembering the humans they had met that had lived entire lifetimes without setting foot on their planet of origin.

Theta's eyes widened in wonder.

"I've always wanted to meet a human. My teacher thinks you are animals barely evolved down from the trees. But I've found your history fascinating! Like the-" she stopped, lips almost comically pressed together, one hand pressed over them as if to stop the words from tumbling out. The hand was cautiously removed.

"What time are you from? I'm not allowed to say anything that is in your future." She looked to the side, shoulders sagging. "I don't want to get punished again." She added quietly.

"The 21st century. But we're time travellers so we've been to the future. Don't worry, we won't tell if you say more than you should if you won't."

"The 21st century," she murmured to herself. "If that before or after the-'' she cut herself off. "I've done it again." She sounded miserable. "This mouth won't stop talking sometimes. Stupid Theta, stupid."

Hey," said Yaz. "Knock it off, you're not stupid." Theta looked abashed. Yaz held out a hand to her. "Come on, We'll take you back to the Tardis."

"You have a Tardis?!" She bounced to Yaz's side, bright-eyed once more. "I've studied the dimensional engineering of Tardis's but I've never been in one. One day I'm going to have a Tardis and explore the universe. First stop Earth!"

Yaz couldn't help but grin at Theta's enthusiasm. And feel a little pride that the Doctor really had achieved her childhood dream. Not that she could tell Theta that. But she could tell the Doctor when she was herself again.


End file.
